Environments of Hate

Indoctrination in the Arab World and propaganda advocacy in American university classrooms.

Brigitte Gabriel delivered this stirring speech before the Columbia University Conference on the Middle East and Academic Integrity in New York City in March, 2005.

I'm honored to bring Columbia a unique perspective concerning the academic freedom issue. I see similarities between the issue and my personal experiences growing up. I was raised in an Arabic society in Lebanon that took impressionable young minds and filled them with propaganda. Minds that were young and didn't know any better. I am an eyewitness and a victim of the indoctrination of hate education, racism, intolerance, intimidation and fabricated lies by my government and religious influences.

This indoctrination was for one purpose: To eradicate the newborn state of Israel; to foment hatred and wipe out Jewish presence in an Arab dominated world. For Arabs, the simple existence of Israel was viewed as a catastrophe...al nakbah! This pan Arab hate indoctrination was a reaction to Jews returning to their homeland after Arabic and Islamic belief for 1400 years that the Yahuds were vanquished and subjugated as Dhimmi.

I believe hate-motivated indoctrination fosters irrational thinking and faulty reasoning whether it influenced my education as a child in Lebanon or the "advocacy education" that roils the classrooms here at Columbia. This is the root cause for the controversy swirling around several members of the Middle East Asia Languages Arts and Culture (MEALAC) faculty and their alleged intimidation of students and other faculty.

What is at stake is our future, the students of today who will become tomorrow's leaders. If their minds are poisoned with irrational hatred and the hate is not combated and eliminated, then academic freedom and free speech in an open marketplace of competitive ideas is dead.

But let me begin by talking about my experience growing up in Lebanon where doctrinal hatred of Jews and Israel was ever present.

From television programs to national songs, hourly radio newscasts and newspapers, our citizens were fed a steady diet of lies poisoning our attitudes towards the Jews. Israel - Aaesrael , Israel is the devil. Al-Yahud shayateen, The Jews are evil. Sarakou Al-Ard Al Arabiyah. They stole Arab land. Al Wakt al wahid allazi yassir endana salam huwa lamma naqtul kul al yahud wa narmihum bil bahr, The only time we'll have peace in the Middle East is when we kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea. Every time Israel was mentioned it was attached to the phrase, Al adew al Israeli. The Israeli enemy.

My country saw nothing wrong with taking a generation hostage, molding them into misguided weapons.

My country and others saw nothing wrong with practicing this form of mind abuse. Of taking a generation hostage, molding them into misguided weapons; some willing to be martyred in the name of Islam or Palestinian nationalism. It's a form of mental child abuse taking place in every Arab country.

As a Maronite Lebanese I went to a Christian private school. The pervasive national animosity toward the Jews affected us there to the extent that our Bibles did not include nor did we study the Old Testament. We didn't even know it was a part of the bible. We were told that the Torah is the enemy's book. We were young. We didn't know any better. These were our teachers. We respected them and trusted them.

Had I not had the opportunity for an up-close and personal experience with the Israelis, I would have had nothing by which to judge or compare what I was being told by my society.

My eyes were opened when I spent 22 days in a hospital in northern Israel in the early 1980's. I watched unbelievably as Israeli doctors treated my mother wounded by an artillery shell before he treated the wounded Israeli soldier lying next to her. They treated Lebanese Muslims and Palestinian militia fighters on a par with wounded IDF soldiers. I was shocked that this enemy, hated by the Arabs, treated us all with utmost courtesy, compassion, and respect. It was a transforming experience countering the lies and all the propaganda that I had been indoctrinated in as a child.

Ultimately, I made a commitment to leave my home country and move to Israel to be with these people whose values I respected.

I ended up working in Israel as a television news anchor. I never felt like a second class citizen in Israel. To solidify my commitment to Israel I buried my beloved parents remains in the same Mount Zion cemetery in Jerusalem where the grave of a righteous gentile Oscar Shindler would one day be. I was tired of the lies, exaggerations and manipulations of Arabic society, which brings me to another parallel concerning academic freedom and objectivity.

Where is objectivity in the Arab world when they claim that the destruction of the World Trade Center was a CIA/Mossad plot? Where is objectivity on campuses when similar claims and distortions are made? Can there be objectivity when advocacy and hatred is involved? Professor Richard Bullet was right when he coined the term "advocacy education". How can a student get the facts by which to make a decision when professors advocate in their courses using ideological distortions to force form opinion instead of providing objective information for students to form their own opinions?

The lies that Arab society tried to teach me as a child in Lebanon are the same as those spread under the guise of academic freedom on the campus of Columbia.

The lies that Arab society tried to teach me as a child in Lebanon are the same as those spread under the guise of academic freedom on the Morningside campus of Columbia. During a recent speech at a Columbia Law school forum, Professor Massad repeated 24 times in a half-hour that, "Israel is a racist Jewish apartheid oppressive state." His exercise in academic freedom ignores the facts. As a Middle Easterner brought up on this patent "Israel is a racist state" propaganda, I discovered it is total hate inspired nonsense. I've seen with my own eyes what kind of society Israel is. I consider Israel to be one of the most multi-racial and multi-cultural countries in the world. There are no racial restrictions on becoming a citizen of Israel like there are in many Arab countries. Remember, Jews can't live in the neighboring Arab Kingdom of Jordan or in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Israel's multi-racial society belies the charge of racism. More than 100 different countries of the world are represented in the population of Israel. Consider how the Israeli government spent tens of millions of dollars airlifting more than 40,000 black Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984 and 1991. Since 2001 Israel has reached out to help others taking in non-Jewish refugees from Lebanon, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Liberia, Congo and even Bosnian Muslims. How many such refugees have the 22 states in the Arab league taken in? The Arab world won't even give Palestinian refugees citizenship in their host countries.

Over one million Arabs are full Israel citizens. An Arab sits on the Supreme Court of Israel. There are Arab political parties expressing views inimical to the State of Israel sitting in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Women are equal partners in Israel and have complete human rights. Professor Massad, show me an Arab nation with a Jew in their government. Show me an Arab country with half as many Jewish citizens as Israel has Arab citizens. I'll borrow some of your academic freedom now and say that Arab nations are the real racist and oppressive states.

In the David Project film, "Columbia Unbecoming," you hear a word familiar to us in the Arab world mentioned by these brave students and Rabbi Charles Sheer, the emeritus executive director of Barnard /Columbia Hillel. The word is: intimidation.

And people here at Columbia are up in arms that intimidation is mentioned? Let me tell you about intimidation. I know what using fear to deny freedom of thought is. In parts of the Arab world freely expressing your thoughts can get you killed. I said things as a news anchor that the Arabs did not like and it got my picture published in Hezbollah and PLO newspapers and magazines saying I should be killed.

What sort of academic atmosphere do you think that would foster here on American campuses? I'd like to think the ACLU would be up in arms and coming to my defense. As one who escaped repression and came to America I'm shocked that such elitists as the ACLU are the enemy to the pursuit of freedom. That people in America support the oppressive actions that I left in the Middle East simply astounds me.

Here at Columbia or DePaul I find more irony. When you speak out as a student you are told by some of the MEALAC faculty to leave the classroom. In the case of Professor Thomas Klocek at DePaul University you are suspended without due process for challenging lies about Israelis being Nazi occupiers by a Students for Justice in Palestine campus group. These are matters to be addressed by the Columbia administration, the ACLU and the AAUP now. What we're getting is people hiding behind psychobabble about "academic freedom and free speech." What we see is freedom being used to spread lies, bar the facts, bend the truth and poison the minds of future leaders.

Speaking for millions who suffered and those still suffering under tyranny and oppression... we don't understand how people in American universities, who have enjoyed freedom for so long, can abuse that very freedom by doing things that hinder the spread of freedom throughout the world.

I see another parallel involving history that is happening here at Columbia and on other campuses. Anti-Semites and anti-Israelis have tapped into that part of the DNA of most Jews that paralyzes them from being confrontational when attacked. It's as if the Arabs studied Krystallnacht...the night of broken glass November 9th, 1938 in Nazi Germany. Scare Jews off and they will not respond or won't come back. Turning academic freedom into academic intimidation is the tactic being used here at Columbia and other campuses across the nation.

These ideologues know that they are teaching students who have no background or prior knowledge of the Middle East situation. What they are doing is an extension of what is taking place in schools in Palestinian and Muslim madrasses across the Islamic crescent. Repeat a lie enough and it becomes truth. You listen to what we say. If you don't there will be consequences.

I have heard that a graduate student at the School of International and Public Affairs here at Columbia approached a professor about holding programs on global anti-Semitism. The tenured faculty member said that he would be "blacklisted." Blacklisted by other Columbia faculty for even raising the topic. Further, this young graduate student was told not to even think of bringing up the subject of Genocide in the Sudan! Sounds like intellectual fascism to me.

What shocked me was how totally unprepared teenage Jews are when it comes to understanding the history of the Middle East conflict.

This brings me to something I was surprised to discover. I have always known that Jews are into studying and debating and being informed people. I knew about the Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation and really thought that American Jewish children were prepared for life. What shocked me, really confounded me was how totally unprepared teenage Jews are when it comes to understanding the history of the Middle East conflict. The Jewish community has let freshmen down in preparing them to face what biased or hate filled college environments are throwing at them today.

Let me tell you something else about hate in the Arabic environment. Arab children are taught hatred of the Jew from their mother's milk. They are constantly bombarded with stories and information presenting the Jew as barbaric, conniving, manipulative, warmongering people. You name it. While the Jew is taught patience, humility, service and charity to all:Olam tikkun olam-to repair the world. No wonder professors with an agenda of hate propaganda can intimidate and belittle young Jewish students. It is time for the Jewish community to wake up. It is time that Jewish youths are prepared to do battle in the open cockpit of debate in college classrooms.

It is also time for tenured faculty at Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, DePaul, Duke, the University of California at Irvine to find their moral compasses and rise up with their colleagues and administrations to reclaim their campuses from the poisonous indoctrination of hate. Reclaim it and return the classroom to an intimidation free environment for young minds to learn the truth through open debate and give them, us and the world a better future.

About the Author

Visitor Comments: 19

(18)
hrothgar,
July 31, 2011 12:48 PM

Brilliant.

What an absolutely brilliant article!Truthful,hard-hitting and fearless in it's insistance on truth.One wonders what the motives of these corrupted professors and academics in the universties really are.Do they actually want an Islamic world?They normally have very little personal belief.Could Saudi money be part of it?

(17)
VeronicaRedmond,
November 5, 2006 11:32 AM

The time has come - Thank you Brigitte!

What a compelling statement. I'm trying on a daily basis to educate myself on the Radical Islam propaganda and thank god for people like Brigitte who can share her expertise and god-given talent for speaking about this. How else can we know what's "really" going on in this world? Who is going to stand up for those being persecuted and denied the most basic of freedoms? Thank you Brigitte. And please dear god let everyone hear and spread the message against this worst of evils, the Radical Islam movement! God bless the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhist, the Hindu's. And where in the world are the supposedly "non-RadicalMuslims"? Don't they have an obligation to join forces and speak out against this tyranny against humanity? Where are they? I want to know. I demand to know. If they don't speak up and band together, I shall assume they condone the radical islams and should be treated accordingly. After all, aren't the supposedly good Muslims supposed to be 85% of the population? This is where the change has to come from - from within the Muslim religion. This is the only hope I can see of stopping this evil threat to humanity and to civilization as we know it. The hope is with the peaceful Muslims. Stand up now and be counted or it will be too late for you also!

hrothgar,
July 31, 2011 1:13 PM

There is no such thing,at this time ,as moderate Islam.

Veronica.A lot of people ,especially in the West ,make the mistake that if people talk about god then they must mean well.This is particularly true of Christians and Jews who believe in a kind loving father-God.But Islam does not believe in God,the Judeo/Christian God.Islam believes in "Allah" an ancient pagan deity that Muhammad elevated to the level of the true God.Allah's attributes are those of war-like Arab desert dwellers who 's purpose in life was to loot,subdue other tribes possess women , and livestock.Islam has not changed;it can not change because if it did change it would not be Islam but something else.Islam forbids change or discussion with a view to modify or rationalise the words of Muhammad or Allah,neither must be questioned.Many muslims in the West are no longer practising moslems in the real sense ,know very little of the Koran and do not even understand the Arabic that they pray in.But they can only be like this because the west holds Islam at bay.If Islam and the Sharia were to be dominant in the West then these moslems would have to toe the line, or else;apostacy is a capital offence.Pious moslems would despise them.So with Islam it is all or nothing,you are either Moslem or not and Islam is not moderate.

(16)
Anonymous,
April 8, 2006 12:00 AM

Took my breath away!

Brigitte Gabriel, a courageous, truthful woman. You will be in my prayers.

(15)
Michael,
July 6, 2005 12:00 AM

I'm speechless

I have become speechless after reading this article as well as all other articles by Brigitte Gabriel - a true Eshet Hayil (Woman of Valour). Her outstanding courage is an inspiration to us all.
May G-d All Mighty bless you a thousand times!

(14)
Roni Turman,
June 17, 2005 12:00 AM

I have read your comments keep it up the american people need you voice, not only America but the world.

Sometimes the truth stops people in there every day tracks. But are boys and girls are over in Iraq fighting so the people can hear the truth . Your in my prayers. Shalom Roni

(13)
Layla,
June 2, 2005 12:00 AM

Her life experience in Lebanon might be exceptional

I’m Christian Lebanese and I partially don't agree with Brigitte. Reading this article made me wonder about her unique life experience in lebanon; and think that her school was an exception. Politically, Lebanese Christians were allies with Israel, even get trained by Israel and welcomed them in our country in 1982. It might be the case in none Christian school but can not confirm… The rest of her article was attention-grabbing. Keep the good job and God bless.

(12)
Merlock,
May 26, 2005 12:00 AM

An Excellent Article

The situation at college campuses really does need to be better controlled. Thank you very much, and God bless.

(11)
Steve Gross,
May 23, 2005 12:00 AM

Wonderful article

You hit the nail on the head!!!!!. Unfortunately, not many young Jews feel the same way you do. Being in America and being Jewish is a blessing and a curse. We are free to practice and learn, but it is easier to blend in and forget ones heritage, and special relationshoip with the creator of the universe. It is esier to run from a painful situation instead of learning and growing from it.

(10)
chana sharfstein,
May 20, 2005 12:00 AM

Congratulations. Yourarticle should be a "must read"by all.

As a docent at the Museum of jewish Heritage A Living memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park of NYC, there is an abundance of heartbreaking material, phtographs and various videos, that help the visitor understand the horror of Nazism. I find that the display of a chidren's game, a game enjoyed by young German chidren, is one of the worst items in the museum. Why would a simple game fill me with terror you wonder? This game has the objective of teaching HATE to innocent young children and this fills me with dread. The game is similar to checkers in that one removes pieces from the board, The pieces are actually JEWS who should be removed from the town to make the place pleasant for Germans. The presence of Jews is offensive to this town. The pieces that represent Jews are ugly yellow cones with human features while the Germans are presented in human form. In each corner of the game board is a Sammel Platz, a gathering place where the "Jews" are to be placed. the winner is the one who is first in removing 6 Jews to clear the town. We state "never again" and yet the situation described in this article clearly points to the repitition of inculcating youth with hatred. We are instructed on Shvous to bring our children to shul to hear the reading of the 10 commandments, to reenact our historic event. We are reminded that in giving us the Torah, Hashem asked for guarantoors and those were our children. All children are born with clear beautiful minds. Only young innocent children are the ones that can be taught hatred most successfully, just because of their purity of thought. It is heartbreaking that over and over again mankind is not learning the lesson that hatred destroys and we must all pray for PEACE and do our best to live in tolerance and acceptance. We need Moshiach NOW.

(9)
Anonymous,
May 14, 2005 12:00 AM

continue!!

ms. gabriel and others like her must continue to do this invaluable work. it is a kiddush HaShem to redeem the name of Israel in the public media with the truth told by one who recognized her own deception. May G-d help her to continue!!

(8)
Stanley,
May 12, 2005 12:00 AM

Excellent

what a beautiful publication. Iam a young man from Africa who loves Israel so much. Anything that concerns the jewish people touches me also. this article presents the truth in its entirety.

(7)
Anonymous,
May 12, 2005 12:00 AM

Dear Bridgitte Gabriel,
After reading your article in class regarding racism ,facism, and bigotry;i was astounded and amased that in todays society unfortunately many people are thinking backwards. The weiredest part of it all is that many people mistakenly think that it is perfectly normal. Congratulations Miss Gabriel (one hundred times)on coming out and speaking to the public and proving that it is not.
sincerely,
your fan
p.s. you are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(6)
Gail,
May 11, 2005 12:00 AM

G-d Bless Brigitte for her strength, intelligence and courage to leave an environment filled with toxicity and speaking out against this sad brainwashing hatred.

(5)
Yoka,
May 10, 2005 12:00 AM

Wake up World

What a powerful article. We need to wake up and protect our children who are to scared to speak out. Every Jew needs to speak about this and fight back so the truth will be know.
Thank you Brigitte Gabriel

(4)
Anne,
May 9, 2005 12:00 AM

Stand Up

yaakovd....Why did you not stand up and be counted..... recall the saying ...Never Again?...well it is happening again and once again we are standing why waiting for "someone else " to stand up

(3)
Brian C.,
May 8, 2005 12:00 AM

A vey good question you bring up

This is an outstanding article, and brings out many truths. Why won't Jews stand up and confront this??? Even the Jewish newspapers (and certainly the temples) are conciliatory and cowardly when confronted with this wave of hate.

(2)
Anonymous,
May 8, 2005 12:00 AM

Bravo

Brigitte Gabriel tells it like it is. This was a great article

Thank you

(1)
yaakov d,
May 8, 2005 12:00 AM

Very Interesting Article!

I was a student at UPenn 98-'02 and I witnessed this same kind of intimidation. In '02, Arab students dressed up as Israeli soldiers with M-16's and acted out a mock execution of blindfolded, helpless Palestinians. They set up the demonstration in the middle of campus, in the middle of the day, right next to the booths that were set up for Israel Day. Probably over 100 Jewish students continuously stood around watching the act not knowing what to do. It was a terrible feeling of helplessness to be confronted by such anger, hate and lack of common decency. To the students' credit, (or maybe not?), nobody stepped in to stop them from acting out their play. Not to mention that earlier in the day they had set up giant photos of "Palestinians executed by Israelis" across from the Israel Day booths. I still don't know what should have been done in that situation...?

I'm told that it's a mitzvah to become intoxicated on Purim. This puzzles me, because to my understanding, it is not considered a good thing to become intoxicated, period.

One of the characteristics of the at-risk youth is their use of drugs, including alcohol. In my experience, getting drunk doesn't reveal secrets. It makes people act stupid and irresponsible, doing things they would never do if they were sober. Also, I know a lot about the horrible health effects of abusing alcohol, because I work at a research center that focuses on addiction and substance abuse.

Also, I am an alcoholic, which means that if I drink, very bad things happen. I have not had a drink in 22 years, and I have no intention of starting now. Surely there must be instances where a person is excused from the obligation to drink. I don't see how Judaism could ever promote the idea of getting drunk. It just doesn't seem right.

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Putting aside for a moment all the spiritual and philosophical reasons for getting drunk on Purim, this remains an issue of common sense. Of course, teenagers should be warned of the dangers of acute alcohol ingestion. Of course, nobody should drink and drive. Of course, nobody should become so drunk to the point of negligence in performing mitzvot. And of course, a recovering alcoholic should not partake of alcohol on Purim.

Indeed, the Code of Jewish Law explicitly says that if one suspects the drinking may affect him negatively, then he should NOT drink.

Getting drunk on Purim is actually one of the most difficult mitzvot to do correctly. A person should only drink if it will lead to positive spiritual results - e.g. under the loosening affect of the alcohol, greater awareness will surface of the love for God and Torah found deep in the heart. (Perhaps if we were on a higher spiritual level, we wouldn't need to get drunk!)

Yet the Talmud still speaks of an obligation on Purim of "not knowing the difference between Blessed is Mordechai and Cursed is Haman." How then should a person who doesn't drink get the point of “not knowing”? Simple - just go to sleep! (Rama - OC 695:2)

All this applies to individuals. But the question remains - does drinking on Purim adversely affect the collective social health of the Jewish community?

The aversion to alcoholism is engrained into Jewish consciousness from a number of Biblical and Talmudic sources. There are the rebuking words of prophets - Isaiah 28:1, Hosea 3:1 with Rashi, and Amos 6:6, and the Zohar says that "The wicked stray after wine" (Midrash Ne'alam Parshat Vayera).

It is well known that the rate of alcoholism among Jews has historically been very low. Numerous medical, psychological and sociological studies have confirmed this. The connection between Judaism and sobriety is so evident, that the following conversation is reported by Lawrence Kelemen in "Permission to Receive":

When Dr. Mark Keller, editor of the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, commented that "practically all Jews do drink, and yet all the world knows that Jews hardly ever become alcoholics," his colleague, Dr. Howard Haggard, director of Yale's Laboratory of Applied Physiology, jokingly proposed converting alcoholics to the Jewish religion in order to immerse them in a culture with healthy attitudes toward drinking!

Perhaps we could suggest that it is precisely because of the use of alcohol in traditional ceremonies (Kiddush, Bris, Purim, etc.), that Jews experience such low rates of alcoholism. This ceremonial usage may actually act like an inoculation - i.e. injecting a safe amount that keeps the disease away.

Of course, as we said earlier, all this needs to be monitored with good common sense. Yet in my personal experience - having been in the company of Torah scholars who were totally drunk on Purim - they acted with extreme gentleness and joy. Amid the Jewish songs and beautiful words of Torah, every year the event is, for me, very special.

Adar 12 marks the dedication of Herod's renovations on the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 11 BCE. Herod was king of Judea in the first century BCE who constructed grand projects like the fortresses at Masada and Herodium, the city of Caesarea, and fortifications around the old city of Jerusalem. The most ambitious of Herod's projects was the re-building of the Temple, which was in disrepair after standing over 300 years. Herod's renovations included a huge man-made platform that remains today the largest man-made platform in the world. It took 10,000 men 10 years just to build the retaining walls around the Temple Mount; the Western Wall that we know today is part of that retaining wall. The Temple itself was a phenomenal site, covered in gold and marble. As the Talmud says, "He who has not seen Herod's building, has never in his life seen a truly grand building."

Some people gauge the value of themselves by what they own. But in reality, the entire concept of ownership of possessions is based on an illusion. When you obtain a material object, it does not become part of you. Ownership is merely your right to use specific objects whenever you wish.

How unfortunate is the person who has an ambition to cleave to something impossible to cleave to! Such a person will not obtain what he desires and will experience suffering.

Fortunate is the person whose ambition it is to acquire personal growth that is independent of external factors. Such a person will lead a happy and rewarding life.

With exercising patience you could have saved yourself 400 zuzim (Berachos 20a).

This Talmudic proverb arose from a case where someone was fined 400 zuzim because he acted in undue haste and insulted some one.

I was once pulling into a parking lot. Since I was a bit late for an important appointment, I was terribly annoyed that the lead car in the procession was creeping at a snail's pace. The driver immediately in front of me was showing his impatience by sounding his horn. In my aggravation, I wanted to join him, but I saw no real purpose in adding to the cacophony.

When the lead driver finally pulled into a parking space, I saw a wheelchair symbol on his rear license plate. He was handicapped and was obviously in need of the nearest parking space. I felt bad that I had harbored such hostile feelings about him, but was gratified that I had not sounded my horn, because then I would really have felt guilty for my lack of consideration.

This incident has helped me to delay my reactions to other frustrating situations until I have more time to evaluate all the circumstances. My motives do not stem from lofty principles, but from my desire to avoid having to feel guilt and remorse for having been foolish or inconsiderate.

Today I shall...

try to withhold impulsive reaction, bearing in mind that a hasty act performed without full knowledge of all the circumstances may cause me much distress.

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